Actually, if like most of their stuff, it'll get pulled due to a request from the subject company's legal team.

In anticipation of the inevitable, I'll just include the story here:

[quote]Special Report: QuarkXPress 6.0 inside details

By Nick dePlume, Publisher and Editor in Chief

January 21, 2003 - Exclusive

"The X transition is basically over," Apple CEO Steve Jobs boasted at his Macworld Expo keynote this month. But, he conceded, "We've got a few laggard apps that we have to still get out ... we all know which one we're talking about."

The audience laughed knowingly: To call the release of a Mac OS X-native QuarkXPress "much-anticipated" would be a gross understatement. And the effects of this glaring omission on the OS X roster have been profound. At Apple's quarterly earnings call last week, CFO Fred Anderson blamed, in part, the lack of an OS X QuarkXPress for sluggish Power Mac sales. Apple's decision to continue to offer OS 9-booting hardware despite its 2003 OS X-only policy was to satisfy "pro customers still running Mac OS 9 applications such as QuarkXPress," the company said.

Making matters worse, Quark has lashed out at users who berate the company for its sluggish pace, as with one November conference in New York where CEO Fred Ebrahimi suggested that users dissatisfied with the company's Mac efforts "switch to something else." Quark corporate PR responded to the reports, but didn't deny the truth of the CEO's statements, and attempted to back up his claims that the Mac market is shrinking. Meanwhile, it appears Apple doesn't know where it stands with Quark week-to-week. "You can bring a horse to the trough, but you cannot force him to drink," said one representative of Apple Developer Relations.

However, sources recently provided Think Secret with inside details on the features that will be found in QuarkXPress 6.0, which they estimate will be released this summer. The June/July timeframe appears to be Quark's tentative schedule, internally, though this release date could certainly slip, as it has done already, several times.

The most significant feature will, of course, be the addition of Mac OS X support. The Aqua user interface will be present across-the-board, and the software will also support XTensions if they have been updated for OS X. (On a considerably more minor note, QuarkXPress 6.0 will also support Windows XP.)

QuarkXPress 6.0 will finally get Multiple Undo capability, a feature cut from version 5. The new version will also be able to undo actions that couldn't be reversed in previous versions. Sources said that it will support 30 multiple undo steps.

A great number of QuarkXPress 6.0's enhancements will be in the areas of printing and layers. A new one-step option will specify which layers print from a print-optimized layout space, accessible from the Print dialog box. This will be offered in addition to the existing Suppress Output option. Also, Suppress Output will be changed so that it overrides settings for individual items on a layer. Additionally, the way layers are locked will be improved so that all items on a layer are locked until the layer is unlocked, reverting individual items' locks to their original settings. The contextual menu for the Layers palette will also come equipped with a new "Select All Items on Layer" command.

On the printing side, QuarkXPress 6.0 will include improvements to the output functionality for print layouts. SmoothShading will be a part of the upgrade, allowing you to print smoother gradients in printed blends outputted to PostScript Level 3 devices. Another feature will be "As Is" color, managing color output at the final PostScript printer. When outputted to the device, items will use their source color space when As Is color is applied. "DeviceN" will take multi-inks, blends, and other items and output them as composite color, but will maintain the items' color separation by defining the names and percentages of the requisite ink.

QuarkXPress 6.0 will support multiple layout spaces in a single project file, allowing for a single project to be designed for different media types. In one file, you will be able to interchangeably convert print and Web-based designs, sharing content while using different layouts. Once the text is synchronized between multiple layout spaces, you can edit the text in only one space and it will automatically update in the other spaces. This looks to be an efficient way to develop content for both print and Web, simultaneously.

New enhancements to tables will also be added, allowing you to link text cells to other text cells or text boxes, set the tab order of cells, and force cells to use the attributes of adjacent cells. You will also be able to apply clipping settings to pictures in picture cells. QuarkXPress 6.0 will boast changes to the way color is applied to table elements. You'll also be able to remove gridlines, snap gridlines to guides for better positioning, and convert a table to a group.

Hyperlinks will show signs of retooling in QuarkXPress 6.0, with the ability to create page-to-page hyperlinks , and apply more specific settings for how hyperlinks and anchors are displayed.

The new version will also include a variety of enhancements to its Web features: cascading menus, CSS font familities, rollovers, HTML preview and export features, and form controls, among others.

Other updates: QuarkXPress 6.0 will have the ability to preview pictures on the screen at full-resolution, avenue.quark and QuarkXTensions XML Import software will be revised, and new projects created in version 6.0 will be able to save as a QuarkXPress 5.0 document.

There's still a long, long road ahead before QuarkXPress 6.0 hits the streets. At least now, design professionals can get an idea of some of the things to expect from Quark this summer.<hr></blockquote>

I hope InDesign 3 blows XPress out of the water with this one. I'm sure many people will fork out the upgrade price - which is bound to be excessive - but hopefully others will move to InDesign.</strong><hr></blockquote>

They will. But many will stick to Quack, be it in 3.x, 4.x flavor, few in 5 and (very?) few in 6. I know print and DTP-shops a bit here in Europe. Most of them have older machines, and they can do the job with older Xpress's as well. Why upgrade ? They're very conservative.

So, the ones that *will* upgrade are the 'funky' ones. And since they have a more open mind, they will more easely switch to Indesign altogether. Not all of them, but still a fair amount. And ID's a lot cheaper too !

<strong>Hmmm... the improvements aren't earth-shattering, and what's with Quark's obsession with adding web functionality to XPress documents? Does anyone here who uses XPress use this ability?</strong><hr></blockquote>

no shit. i played with the demo of 5 when it was public testing, not to bad, but nothing i couldn't live without, hence i stayed with 4x. their whole web focus is a joke at present stage, though i understand where they are trying to go with it with xml and all, just falls flat in implementation. in order for you to publish an existing project to the web you basically have to recreate the wheel and start from scratch anyway. why would i want to use their half assed tools when i can do the same thing only better with macromedia's or adobes tool sets.